


Milk Teeth

by sephmeadowes



Category: Original Work
Genre: Coming of Age, F/M, Fairytale remake, Mermaids, Sirens, The Little Mermaid but Darker, This Ain't Your Mama's Fairytales
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:47:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22116610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sephmeadowes/pseuds/sephmeadowes
Summary: A mermaid saved a human from drowning and it would change her world forever. Transformation was rarely a beautiful thing. A re-telling of The Little Mermaid.
Kudos: 8





	Milk Teeth

Her Aunt Vivien had been living on land for over four human decades, a relatively short time for their kind, and barely said a word to her as Marina knocked on the door of her beach house, naked and barely able to stand on her new legs before she was let in. The fleece blanket was itchy on her skin as her aunt made her sit in front of the fire and eat soup, some broth that was salty enough for her tastes. There was sand in her hair and her new legs hurt, aching and pulsing like an angry wound. Change could be so unforgiving.

"Who was it?" her aunt asked in her blunt way. She was never for pretty words and games. "The boy who has you heartsick?"

"I'm not _heartsick_ ," she said the word like a curse. "I just wanted to get away from everything."

"So you go the surface where he will be," Vivien clucked her tongue. "I've seen this story play out through millennia. Yours isn't new by any means."

"Is that what happened with my parents?"

Her mother never liked to talk about her father. A mortal man with no name she'd wondered about her whole life. She tried to picture his face and could not grasp anything tangible. He was as solid as sea foam in her mind.

"Nerissa loved him in her own way," her aunt explained. "But Llyr was mortal and as his kind does, he faded away eventually."

Marina let herself take in the information, stirring the leftover broth with her spoon in the small clay bowl in her hands. She thought about her aloof mother feeling any sort of affection for anyone and could not grasp it. Nerissa was all sharp words and blank looks. Their kind was too cold for such deep affection.

"What was he like? Llyr?" His name felt like a forgotten dream in her mouth. "Am I like him?"

"Llyr was kind and warm," Vivien took the bowl from her, getting to her feet. "You take after your mother."

The words were harsh but true. They sunk heavily into her like a shipwreck. She leaned back in the threadbare armchair in her aunt's living room and closed her eyes. She dreamed of the boy she saved and Asherah's collection of human teeth.

* * *

Marina was young by her kind's standards when she met her first man. No, _boy_ was the better term, not quite a man yet by his people's definition. Bones still growing and skin splotchy, he was an unfinished masterpiece. She was wary and fascinated as he stepped into the water, the waves deceptively calm before he was taken under by the riptide.

She could've let him die. Let the sea claim another victim foolish enough to swim into its mouth without thinking twice. She watched him struggle to the surface, too long limbs he still wasn't used to trying to fight the current and get to safety. He would tire quickly, his people eventually always succumbed, and he would bloat like a puffer fish. Men could be so ugly in death.

The moment he gave in was too quiet, his body stopping its futile struggle and he stayed still as the water filled his lungs. Asherah would've gone to him, let her be the last thing he saw before her teeth went to his neck, feasting on his flesh and probably using his bones to decorate her cave. Her mother would've thrown his body to the sharks to devour.

She did not know what made her swim up to this boy creature and grab his face in her hands, his eyes closed and his cheeks still round with baby fat he'd yet to shed. He was still a damn guppy. It was less a kiss and more a meeting of their mouths, inhaling air into his lungs. His eyes were the color of sea glass as he woke, staring at her in awe and confusion. It didn't last as he swam up to the surface and she left him to live his short, human life.

* * *

She met him again in town, wearing an old sundress her aunt no longer cared for and sandals that were slightly too big. Her wavy dark hair blew in the wind as she walked around the paved streets, ice cream cone dripping in her hand. She hadn't cared for the sweet, finding it too cloying for her tastes. 'Salted caramel' it said in the shop but not salty enough.

His hair was the same color as salted caramel in the sun, sweat glistening down his neck and to his collarbone. He was wearing a white shirt, his skin flushed. A dark brown strap in one hand connected him to a large sheepdog that had its tongue out. She stopped there in the middle of the pavement, not knowing what to do. The dog made its way to her it. He gave her a big doggy smile before going for the dripping ice cream in her hand.

"Max! Bad dog!" the boy chastised, trying to pull the dog away from her. "I'm really sorry about that. He failed obedience class."

Not really knowing what he was talking about, she ran her fingers through the shaggy mane of the dog's back. His sea glass eyes were even more vibrant under the oversaturated hues of that scorching afternoon heat.

"It's alright," she told him. "I don't really care for ice cream."

"Really?" He looked surprised. "I can't get enough of it. My mom says I'm lucky I don't get cavities."

More words she didn't understand. She just nodded.

"Well, I gotta go," He smiled at her, all white pearly teeth. "Sorry again about Max. I'll see you around."

She watched him leave and he didn't turn back towards her. Sweat beaded down from her forehead and it was almost unbearable. She longed for a swim and the cooler waters of the ocean. She let her feet lead the way.

* * *

Asherah's scales were black and gleamed a shot of purple when the light reflected off it. With her darker skin contrasting with her shock of long, white hair, she was the most beautiful sight as she enticed men to go into the depths with her, none of them returning to the surface. Her little cave was littered with bones, skulls placed reverently on the wall like idols to a perverse god. Asherah liked to pull out the canines from the skulls, the pointy ones she liked to use as jewelery.

Marina stared at Asherah's necklace the teeth bleached white from time. Some were so small they might've belonged to children. Milk teeth. It was Asherah's most prized possession.

"Does your mother know you're here?" Asherah asked as she brushed her hair with a silver comb, one of many treasures they looted from ships. "Nerissa will not take your abandonment well."

"She would hardly care," Marina replied, certain. Her mother forgot she existed most of the time. "And she has no say on what I do."

"Even falling in love with a _human_?" Asherah practically hissed the last word, her lovely face turning ugly with a sneer. "I didn't think you'd be one of the weak ones."

Like the very same weak-minded little mermaids who gave up their fins to fall in love with cruel men. They used to make fun of them when they were younger. Back when it was just the two of them and the ocean was theirs to explore and wreak havoc. They slept in the same cave, shared food, and combed each other's hair under the golden sun. It was the closest thing to affection for their kind.

Marina didn't bother lying or defending herself. She kept silent as Asherah put down the silver comb and moved closer to her until their tails brushed against each other's. Asherah's lips were soft and full, her lips a dark red and she tasted like a sea breeze as she kissed her. Sharp teeth grazed her bottom lip drawing blood and she pulled away, taking in a lungful of air.

Asherah murmured, her breath fanning her cheek, "Why would you leave me?"

"I don't want to," she confessed, but the longing in her bones was becoming unbearable, all because of a stupid kiss and a stupid boy who couldn't swim. She wanted to rip out her heart from her ribcage and let the sharks devour what was left of her. "I don't know how to make this agony stop."

Obsidian eyes stared into hers, at the very center of her being. Asherah's nails dug into her arms and she beseeched, "Let me."

* * *

It was for the survival of the species. Nature only made mermaids and there were no mermen to procreate with so their kind needed to lure human men not only to their deaths but for the sake of babies. Mothers would stay on land for the first few years until their children were old enough to change form and their bodies able to withstand being remade. Fathers would be discarded in what way the mother saw fit.

Marina didn't remember her father. She could not recall his face or his voice. She had vague recollections of a land of grassy hills and abundant rain. She remembered a tiny house by the seaside.

Asherah told her she didn't remember her father either. She recalled a land of color and heat. She remembered fruit so sweet it made her teeth hurt. She remembered animals running through a field of golden grass.

Time took away memory and she remembered less as each year passed by. The human world changed so quickly while they stayed the same underwater. Places were remade, their names making ghosts of people and histories. And she walked around that seaside town and could almost see all of the people aging before her very eyes.

It was when she was in her maudlin of moods that she liked to go to the port and look at the boats of all shapes and sizes. Little ones that were built for speed, larger ones better for transport. She liked to guess which ones would sink faster. It was on a day, ordinary as can be, that she met him again.

She was staring at a boat named _Miranda_ when he appeared by her side and said, "Hi again."

She did not jump. Only guppies got spooked like that and turned to him calmly.

"Hello."

He continued to smile at her.

"You like boats?"

He could say that. Sunken ones she quite liked.

"This is mine," he admitted, almost sheepish. "Birthday gift from my dad. Other kids get cars, I got a boat."

"And _Miranda_?"

"My granddad chose the name. It's from some old film from the 1940's," he explained. " _Miranda_ was a mermaid that spent time on land, seduced men and ended up with a baby."

She wanted to laugh at the accuracy or the absurdity she wasn't sure which, and asked, "And do you believe in mermaids?"

He looked down at the ground, a light flush turning his golden skin a pretty coral pink.

"Maybe. It's going to sound stupid but…" He looked up at her, his blue-green eyes staring into hers and for a moment she couldn't breathe. "I saw one."

"When?"

"A month ago, I was dared by my friends to go into the water with them - and I'm not the best swimmer to begin with - and then I was sinking and I thought I was going to die," he told her. "Then there she was. The prettiest thing I've ever seen. And she kissed me and suddenly I could breathe. I swam up and she was gone."

She remembered it as he did. The press of her mouth against his, breathing air into his lungs. The way he stared at her like she was a wonderful dream.

"A kiss from a mermaid prevents sailors from drowning."

"I used to make fun of that. I thought it was just one of those old wives' tales but after experiencing it for myself…" Remembering himself, he shook his head. "I'm sorry. I just dumped all of that on you and I don't even know your name."

She replied, "Marina."

"Oh, that's pretty," He was all smiles again. "I'm Ronan."

* * *

As the sun was setting, he walked her back to her aunt's house. The sun looked like it was sinking into the sea. The world painted warm and gold. It suited Ronan, this palette of warmth, and it almost hurt to look at him.

He expressed surprise when he realized who she was related to.

"I didn't think she had any family," He said. "We all thought…"

"Thought what?"

He gave her one of his sheepish smiles again. "Well, all the kids used to think she was some kind of witch."

She laughed a husky little sound that was more than a little mocking. There was a sea witch but it wasn't her aunt. Asherah's mother, Darya, wouldn't be caught dead living in some nondescript seaside town.

"Don't worry," she almost crooned. "She doesn't have that kind of magic."

"I see," He cocked his head to the side. "Still shouldn't cross her then?"

"Definitely not."

They'd arrived in front of her aunt's house. It looked dilapidated and might fall apart from a strong gust of wind. Surely it had to be standing up with the aid of some kind of otherworldly power. No wonder people thought Vivien was a witch.

"This is me."

She made no move towards the house, resisting the urge to shuffle her feet through the sand. She did not know where this sudden shyness came from and she was not happy about it.

"You wanna, um, go to a party this weekend?" he asked. "My friends and I are having this little get-together at my house. Just a few people. A farewell party of sorts before we all leave for college

"You should come," He pointed to the large white house atop the cliff side that practically hovered over the water, the rocks underneath it forming a large mouth with teeth as if it aimed to swallow the ocean whole. "That's my house. Party's at seven."

The white house stood out like bleached stone and she turned back to him, almost demanding, "Why are you inviting me?"

"You seem nice and this is gonna sound weird but I feel like I know you," he admitted. "I mean like we've met before. And I'm reluctant to never see you again."

"You just met me," she pointed out because his eyes were more green than blue at that moment and she needed to focus. Her head was swimming. "That's a bold statement to make."

"Yes, but sometimes you gotta jump head first and see where the current takes you, you know?"

The same mentality that almost got him killed the first time. She nodded and told him she would meet him at the party. He seemed incapable of learning his lesson. It was an ironic trait for a species that loved change.

* * *

Learning to walk was not enjoyable. After the very unpleasant experience of transforming her tail for legs, getting to her feet and trying to take the first few steps was a sharp, stinging pain from her toes up to her thighs. It felt like sea glass biting into her skin and digging straight to her bones. Sore and miserable, she lied down on the sand and wept, tears travelling down and mixing with the salt in her hair.

She had never felt so alone before. She had her mother as distant as she was. She had Asherah who wanted to be there with her but she'd refused, not wanting her misery to have a witness.

But she wanted Asherah then. She wanted her mother. And she even wanted the father she couldn't remember. She tried to imagine the man at the beach abandoned and waiting each day for something that would never come.

Slowly, she moved. She limped more than walked down the beach, her feet sinking into the sand. Her aunt's beach house felt like a thousand miles away. She didn't stop even as the agony pushed her to scream and give up.

* * *

Marina wore a white knitted sweater, the wool soft and worn, over her aunt's sundress. She looked into the mirror in the bathroom and aside herself. Her skin was still porcelain and smooth despite all the time she spent walking under the sun. Her long brown hair fell into waves around her like a curtain of seaweed. Her eyes that tawny golden color she got from her mother. She was pretty as all mermaids were.

She made her way to the living room where her aunt was knitting a scarf, the large wooden needles continuously looping wool as Vivien hummed. Her aunt looked a lot like her sister. Both had the same tawny eyes, the same shape of their cupid's bow, and even the same way of speaking down to how they pronounced the syllables of words. Looking at Vivien always made Marina uncomfortable, seeing a reflection of her mother that was capable of feeling. Of love even, as every photo of Vivien's dead husband haunted the house.

Marina took the seat on the couch beside her aunt and watched the almost hypnotic movement of the needles in her hands. Vivien was humming a soft tune, the sound human and sweet, not like their siren's song. It could be a lullaby or some fruitless pop song. It wasn't the otherworldly song that lured people to their demise and Marina didn't hate it.

"Why did you stay here?" she asked, the words felt like they'd been bubbling in her throat for years. "Why did you never return to the sea?"

Vivien didn't stop with her knitting but she simply looked at her niece and answered, "My place is here."

"Your husband has been dead for years," she pointed out. "Your reason to stay is gone."

"I have nothing to gain from returning either," her aunt explained. "The sea is no longer my home."

"You never even had children."

Wasn't that the very reason they went to land and stayed with men? They just needed babies and more little mermaids to fill the ocean? And yet here was her aunt forsaking the ocean for a shuttered life in a tiny house and no babies to speak of. It was a worthless sacrifice for naught.

"Harlan was barren," Vivien shook her head. "It didn't matter. Neither of us wanted children."

"Then what was the point for all of this?"

Her aunt put down her knitting needles down on her lap and reached out to tuck hair behind Marina's ears, it was a gesture so motherly and kind it made her want to weep. Her mother's face without her mother's aloofness, it felt even crueler than her aunt probably knew.

"For love, Marina," she explained with a sad smile. "I stayed because I loved my husband. A fun twist on the usual tale, isn't it? I never left him so eventually he left me."

Vivien picked up her knitting needles and continued, "I cannot return because I have been remade into something I don't recognize anymore. I am neither mermaid nor human. I'm a ghost waiting for my time here to end."

* * *

She arrived past dusk, the cold air swirling around her skirt as she made her way to Ronan's house. It wasn't hard to find it as it was the only house by the cliff, the lights from the massive white structure served as a beacon against its dark and dab surroundings. It had been a long walk as her aunt didn't own a car and that was the only way to go up that part of town. She stopped in front of the oak double doors and debated ringing the doorbell or just letting herself in. Mortal customs eluded her sometimes.

She rang the doorbell. She waited as the doors opened a minute later and Ronan's smiling face greeting her.

"Marina!" His smile got impossibly brighter. "You made it."

She tried to return his smile but it came out a grimace. He didn't seem to mind though as he led her inside the house towards the living room where his friends were. There were about a dozen people lounging about on the couches and even on the large carpet drinking beer and talking. Like a shark smelling blood, one of the girls looked up and eyed her with barely concealed distaste.

Ronan took custody of her arm and pulled her along with him like a tugboat. Without preamble, he cut into the conversation and announced, "Guys, this is Marina. Marina, this is everybody."

A round of "Hi Marina" went through the group except for the girl with the shark eyes who was eyeing their joint hands like she wanted to bite their limbs off. Marina might've been scared if she hadn't grown up with Asherah who'd eaten actual limbs as a diet. She considered the girl more and thought she was pretty for a human with her sleek dark hair and golden skin.

Ronan led them to take a seat on a lounge chair, barely fitting together and forcing her to practically sit on his lap to not fall off.

"Hi, I'm Ava," the girl started. "I haven't seen you around before."

She answered, "I'm new to town."

"And how do you know Ronan?"

Before she could reply, Ronan beat her to it. "We met around town. Her aunt lives by the beach."

There was only one house by the beach that wasn't a vacation home.

"The witch?" Ava questioned, appraising Marina even more scrutiny. "I didn't think she had family."

"She's not a witch," Ronan told her, chidingly. "And Marina's not here for an interrogation, Ava."

Ava gave him a sweet smile, almost demure as she took a sip of her beer.

"I'm just curious, Ronan. Here you are with a pretty girl from town no one's met before."

Ronan looked like he wanted to say more but another boy suddenly got up and declared, "Let's play pool."

* * *

Tyler was Ronan's best friend since they were little and he patiently taught Marina the rules of billiards and how to handle the stick that was even taller than her. Ronan was setting up the rack of balls on the table and a few of the other boys were talking to each other. The girls had stayed by the couches.

"Sorry about Ava," Tyler said to her softly so the others wouldn't hear. "She's had a crush on Ronan since grade school and never got the hint that he's not that into her."

"And does she always do that?" she prompted as they began playing. Ronan had the first turn. "Scare off other girls?"

"Pretty much," Tyler confessed. "Is she succeeding with you?"

She almost rolled her eyes. She was the deadliest thing in that house. She wasn't so easily intimidated. Especially not by a mortal girl laying claim to things not hers.

"Of course not."

"Good," Tyler grinned at her conspiringly. "It's good for Ava to lose sometimes."

Ava should get used to it.

She moved to take her first turn, leaning down and moving the pool stick in place, pulling back and striking the white ball. It shot forward and the red ball marked number three rolled its way down to the pocket on the far right. Tyler let out a whistle, impressed.

"Not bad for a first-timer."

She really loved to win.

* * *

Marina had won the game by some stroke of luck. Tyler and the rest of the boys were back with the group in the living room. Ronan took her to the kitchen as he made them something to eat as a reward. He was also starving.

"Do you have any preferences? Allergies?" He puttered around the massive kitchen, opening cabinets and peering into the enormous double fridge for inspiration. "I warn you, my cooking skills are only passable."

"Something salty."

"Nachos?"

She nodded, not knowing what they were but trusted him to make something edible. He took out a large bowl and filled it with nacho chips, pouring salsa into another smaller bowl.

" _Bon appétit_!"

He looked mighty pleased with himself.

She took a chip and dipped it into the salsa, taking care not to get any of it on her sweater as she took a bite. Still not salty enough but it wasn't the worst thing. She reached for another chip. Ronan looked even more pleased as he started eating with her.

"So, where are you from?"

She answered between bites, "Far."

"How far?"

"Very."

He let out a little laugh at that. "Okay. You don't want to tell me."

He wouldn't believe her anyway. Most mortal men didn't even believe her kind existed. Thought they were mere stories or products of make-believe. He probably wouldn't believe her unless she showed him her tail.

He pushed the nacho bowl away so he could lean closer towards her, the kitchen island still between them.

"Can you at least tell me when you got to town?"

"Two weeks ago."

She could see him thinking, his blue-green eyes focused on her face as he tried to make sense of her and what her purpose was. She stared back at him and tried to memorize his features, the slightly too sharp broad bridge of nose, the thin lips, and the sharper curve of his jaw. His baby face melted off his skin that summer and he was becoming less of the boy she first saw in the water. His eyes remained the same blue-green as the ocean.

The song was one she'd heard through the years. Soft, melodic, and rich echoing in your ears until it was the only sound you heard. She watched Ronan's face go slack, eyes blank as if in a dream and he walked out of the kitchen towards the living room and to the glass doors leading to the backyard of the house. The other boys were there, making their slow way to the cliff's edge. The girls had followed and were trying to snap them out of it.

And there was Tyler closest to the cliff's edge, a few feet away to falling to certain death. If the fall didn't kill Tyler then what was in the water definitely would. Marina ran towards him, grabbing him by the arm and tried to pull him back. Tyler was bigger than her, not just taller, but in mass, all muscle and strength as he continued to move forward. He would take them both towards the edge if she hadn't panicked and reacted with the first idea she could think of.

She punched him in the eye.

He yelped in pain and almost went down, clutching his left eye and staring at her in shock.

He exclaimed, "What the fuck?"

She ignored him and found a large rock about the size of her own head. It was heavy but she didn't mind it as she chucked it off the cliff's edge. She didn't hear a splash as it was drowned out by the ocean waves but it did cease the siren's song. She looked back at the boys coming out of their daze and the girls still shouting at them and felt both relief and annoyance.

Tyler was still clutching his injured eye and Ronan went to them, Ava clutched his arm like an octopus.

Ronan asked, "Are you guys alright?"

"She hit me," Tyler declared. "Like what the fuck was that?"

She recognized the voice. It was a particular siren's song she grew up hearing because she used to sing along with it. Marina looked over the cliff's edge and despite the darkness she saw a flash of white in the water. She was going to kill Asherah.

* * *

The blade and hilt shone like gold in Asherah's hand. When Marina first entered the cove, all she wanted to do was drag Asherah by her hair and slam her face against the cave wall. The other mermaid had smiled at her knowingly and Marina wanted to scream.

She asked, "What happened to your hair?"

Asherah's long curtain of white curls were gone, her hair now cropped short to her skull. She was still beautiful but the change made Marina pause her initial reason for being there.

"My mother never gives anything for free," Asherah explained, bitterly. "A small price for your freedom,"

She echoed, "My _freedom_?"

"Yes," Asherah stressed. "You should be grateful."

Marina scoffed. "I should also be grateful for you almost drowning all those people last night?"

"Let's not pretend you care about them," the other girl returned. "A few weeks ago you would've been luring them with me."

She hated that Asherah was right because no matter what, Asherah knew her best. She couldn't hide anything from the other mermaid.

"What is the blade for?"

"To stab your human in the heart with," Asherah explained bluntly. "It's spelled to break the bond between the two of you. Once he's dead, you are free."

"No," The dread that overcame her made breathing hard. "I don't want him dead."

"A few weeks ago, all you wanted was to be free of him and now _what_?" Asherah shook her head. "Are you like your aunt? _Weak_ and _pathetic_?"

Marina didn't want to speak, didn't want to give life to the truth that festered inside of her. Asherah's hands were gentle as she took her hands in hers and pressed the hilt of the blade into her palms.

"It's just one life. And why does it matter with all the ones we've taken?" Asherah assured her. "It will all be like it was before. Like _we_ were before."

Before she saved a boy on a whim and it began to destroy her inside out. She held the hilt of the blade tighter.

"Like nothing's changed," she agreed but knew it was a lie. "Like nothing at all."

* * *

Transforming back wasn't any less painful the second time. Her legs were unsteady as she walked down the beach. The blade pressed against her skin underneath her aunt's knitted sweater. The white became more a light brown as sand covered most of it and her wet sundress was practically translucent.

She didn't know why she knew he would be by the docks. Like a sailor following the North Star, she let her feet guide her. And there he was standing on the _Miranda_ staring into the distance. Her legs were killing her and she just wanted to lie down.

Swaying on her feet, she called out, "Ronan?"

He turned to her and his smile dropped when he noticed how fatigued she was. "Are you alright?"

"No," Her legs were beginning to buckle. "Please help me."

He practically leapt down from the boat to the dock to get to her, catching her in time before her legs gave up and she fell. Arms around her, he pulled her back up to her feet and she wanted to cry.

"What's wrong?" He pulled her closer and she leaned on him for support. "Marina, what happened to you?"

"You did."

"What?"

She looked into his blue-green eyes and leaned down to rest her head on his chest, wanting to rest just for a few minutes.

"Marina," he tried again. "We should get you some help."

"I just need to lie down," she murmured against his sweater. "Can we get on your boat?"

"I don't think-"

"Please," She clutched his sweater in her hands and it felt so soft, she wanted to just lie on him and fall asleep forever. "Please, Ronan."

He sighed against her ear, his breath warm. "Okay."

* * *

Ronan had to practically carry her up the boat as she was too weak to even wobble along with him. He took her to the cabin below and put her down on the small bed. He took the quilt folded atop the pillows and unfolded it to wrap around her. The mismatched fabrics made her stare and she wondered who made it, a grandmother perhaps.

It smelled like him. Spicy cologne, sweat, and the mints he enjoyed. He sat beside her on the bed, his worry palpable between them. She tried to remember a time somebody cared for her like this and it brought on memories she'd buried so deep inside of her she pretended they were dreams.

"Are you going to tell me what happened to you?" Ronan asked. "Did somebody hurt you?"

"No," She pulled on a loose thread on the quilt. "Truth to be told, I did this to myself."

Blame was easy to lay at somebody else's feet instead of admitting to one's own faults. No one forced her to save him from drowning. No one forced her to go on land to find him. No one forced her to be on that boat with him.

It had been all her all along that caused her misery. Admitting the truth to herself had a freedom that allowed her to finally let herself remember. Remember what she could about her father and the land where he came. She might not remember his face but she did remember the rich timbre of his voice. _In Dublin's fair city where the girls are so pretty…_

"Why would you do this to yourself?"

She looked into his blue-green eyes and confessed, "I didn't want to become my mother."

He stayed silent as she continued, listening intently.

"She's cold and she doesn't love anyone. She's incapable of it," She closed her eyes. "I was so tired of pretending I can't feel anything."

"That's why you saved me."

Her breath froze in her lungs and she opened her eyes slowly to his smiling face, tender and kind. He reached over and tucked a loose curl behind her ear. His hand lingered to trace the soft curve of her cheek down to her chin. The roughened callouses of his fingers made her shiver.

"I wasn't sure at first," he whispered, as if he was afraid he could break this moment. "I saw you at the dock the first time and you asked me about mermaids and I thought it was too much of a coincidence."

He laughed a deep husky sound. "My granddad used to say there was no such thing as coincidences. And when you showed up tonight as I thought about you kissing me and bringing me back to life I just knew."

He leaned closer until she could feel his warm breaths fanning her face. She thought about the cliff's edge by his house and how Tyler wanted to jump off into the depths, uncaring about his life. She was the siren but he was luring her to step off the edge. How the tables had turned.

"Just to be sure," he said. "Are you my mermaid?"

"Yes."

The word barely escaped her before he kissed her, a meeting of mouths far different from their first kiss. He breathed into her and she felt like she was drowning and falling into pieces. His hands peeled the layers off her, his grandmother's quilt, her aunt's clothes, and the sand from the beach that clung to it all falling to the cabin floor. His clothes followed until it was just his skin against hers and the warmth between their bodies she had never felt before.

* * *

Marina woke up to singing. Ronan's arms around her, the sweat still cooling between their bodies, she untangled from him slowly as not to wake him. Her fingers running through his golden hair as he continued to snore. Getting to her feet, she found her clothes, dressing quickly and reaching for the blade that she'd thrown under the bed.

She made sure not to glance at Ronan as she left the cabin and went to the deck, peering over the ship's bow to where Asherah was in the water. The other mermaid stopped her song.

"Where's your human?" Asherah asked. "My singing should've woken him."

"It won't work on him anymore."

"Did you kill him?"

"No," She fiddled with the blade between her hands. "I'm never going to."

"Why not?" Asherah demanded. "It's the only way to be free of him."

"I don't want to," she confessed, knowing her next words would change things between them forever. "I love him."

Asherah scoffed. " _Love_? That's a story they tell little mermaids who don't know better."

Marina didn't say anything, knowing there was no changing her friend's mind. She knew Asherah as much as the other mermaid knew her. She knew that Asherah would never accept that she fell in love with a human and she would deny such a thing could really exist with every breath in her body. She had taken their mothers abandonment and cruelty and let it consume her.

"You're going to abandon me," Asherah stated, her voice trembling. "You're going to stay on land like your aunt and I'll never see you again."

"It doesn't have to be like that-"

"No!" The other mermaid shook her head, furiously. " _Fine_. Live your little lie. He may be in love with the beautiful mermaid that saved him but what about the _siren_ that killed his kind for sport? Do you think he will want you then?

"When he finally sees all of you, do you think he will stay? And then what? You'll want to return to ocean and expect me to be waiting for you?" Asherah scowled at her with all the hurt and hate she could muster. "Do what you must but you and I are done."

"Asherah-"

"Keep the blade," the other mermaid turned away from her. "Because the next time I see you, Marina, I promise I will kill you."

And Asherah was gone. Swimming down to the depths while Marina stayed on the boat and knew there was no turning back now. She closed her eyes and willed the pain away. Transformation was rarely a beautiful thing.

* * *

Years passed by like waves hitting the shore. Vivien taught Marina how to knit and they spoke of Harlan and Nerissa like a secret between the two of them. She learned to make little booties and hats during her pregnancy. She graduated to sweaters by the time the baby was born.

"A boy," Vivien said, surprised. "We rarely get boys."

"I thought we never had boys, only girls," Marina pointed out. "I've never heard of anything like it."

"It's very rare," her aunt conceded. "He'll never be able to transform but he will feel a call to the ocean. He might become a sailor."

Marina laughed at the irony. "A sailor for a siren's son?"

Vivien laughed with her. "Life is funny like that."

They named him Erik. He looked exactly like Ronan except for Marina's cupid bow mouth. He would love the ocean more than anything in the world and by the time he could speak, he would declare he would live there when he grew up. She smiled at him fondly and told him to become a very good swimmer.

When Erik's milk teeth started falling out, she remembered Asherah and wondered not for the first time what had happened to her. She would often wonder as she stared down the cliff's edge and down to the depths below if her former friend ever learned to let go of her hatred. She liked to think Asherah learned to be happy eventually. It was with these thoughts she finally let go of the blade she'd kept all these years and it glistened like gold before it was swallowed by the sea.

* * *

_Epilogue_

Asherah looked at the little mermaid, her hair falling in waves of blood red and resisted the urge to run her fingers through her own close-cropped hair. It had never grown back after she made the deal with her mother. This mermaid was not much of a siren, too sweet and not enough blood thirst. She longed for the days when their kind wasn't so soft.

"I'm in love with a human boy," the mermaid confessed. "I want to make sure he'll love me back."

Asherah remembered Marina. It wasn't something she enjoyed to do as the hurt still festered inside of her and she was sure she must be rotting from the inside out. The betrayal had cut her deep and made her even more irritable upon remembrance. She pictured this little mermaid saving a human with a kiss and why was it so easy for men to snare them like fish?

"You're a siren," she pointed out. _Barely_ but still a siren. "You don't need magic to make him love you."

"Humans are fickle," the mermaid declared. "I would die if he couldn't love me. Just melt into sea foam and _die_."

Asherah resisted rolling her eyes. Marina had never needed magic at the least to make her human love her. She sneered at this silly little mermaid and wanted to punish her for being so foolish. Or maybe just make winning her love more of a challenge.

She smiled, fingering her necklace of milk teeth and said, "I will need payment."

The other mermaid nodded. "Whatever you want,"

"I want your voice."

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Christmas present for Aria. You like sirens so here we go.
> 
> Though not mentioned, this story is actually set in the 90's, just so I didn't have to explain why Marina didn't take an Uber to Ronan's house. Baby Erik would be a teenager in the 2010's and probably eventually goes to college to study Marine Biology (though he gets his own boat as per family tradition).
> 
> Miranda is a British comedy film that was released in 1948, starring Glynis Johns as the title character.
> 
> "A kiss from a mermaid prevents sailors from drowning" is from Pirates of the Caribbean 4 film.
> 
> In Dublin's fair city where the girls are so pretty is the opening lyric from the Irish song Molly Malone. Marina's father, Llyr, is from Ireland and that's also where Marina was born. And since mermaids live a lot longer than humans, she would've been born somewhere between the 18th to 20th century. She looks a lot younger than her real age.
> 
> The mermaids all have names related to the ocean except for Viviene whose name is from The Lady of the Lake in Arthurian Legend.
> 
> There are many references to Hans Christian Andersen's original Little Mermaid story including Asherah trading her hair for a blade to kill the prince (Ronan) with, the mention of dying and turning into sea foam, Marina saving Ronan's life and falling in love with him, walking being painful, etc.
> 
> And of course, there are references to the Disney version of The Little Mermaid from the appearance of sheepdog Max to the title mermaid herself making an appearance in the epilogue.
> 
> Marina's preference for salty foods and drinks is inspired by the film 2006 American teen film Aquamarine where the title character likes to drink water with way too much salt.
> 
> Vivien is partially based on Eliza DooLittle from My Fair Lady with her feeling like she doesn't belong anywhere anymore after her Transformation.


End file.
